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Years from now, Mark Appel may cause seven major league teams to regret not selecting him. But the Stanford righthanded pitcher projected by most experts to go #1 in Monday’s MLB draft may be wondering right now about his selection of agents. The full story will come out later, but speculation abounds that agent Scott Boras was trying to push the Appel price too high for some teams.

Three pitchers were taken before Appel was finally selected by the Pirates with the eighth pick. It’s no secret Pittsburgh was astonished the tall righthander fell to them.

Boras has regularly scared teams off from selecting players high in the draft, and some teams have avoided negotiating with some of his free agents. The Astros’ attempt to sign Carlos Beltran is legend in Southeast Texas. Many felt Beltran never intended to sign long-term with the Astros and that Boras only used the Astros to up the ultimate ante with the Mets. To say the least, former Astros’ owner McLane was not a happy camper.

For the record, the players projected on the Astros’ top five list all went generally where they were expected. All, of course, except for Appel, who must be astonished as his Stanford team prepares for its Super Regional next weekend against Florida State.

One of the pitchers projected as a possible Astros’ pick — LSU’s Kevin Gausman — was the first pitcher chosen in the draft. He was taken fourth by the Orioles, just ahead of Kyle Zimmer (Kansas City) and three picks before Max Fried (San Diego).

The Astros started with a surprise. Few of the so-called experts predicted Houston would choose Puerto Rican shortstop Carlos Correa, but when Minnesota picked Byron Buxton and Seattle took Florida catcher Mike Zunino, eyebrows raised across the country. And Appel was probably on the phone to Boras.

Dropping from a top pick to eighth cost Appel millions. Because of the new rules, each team has a specific amount of money they can spend on the draft. It’s allocated by round, but the teams are not bound by the dollar constraints for each round. However, they may not go beyond the overall budget for all picks without penalty.

The Astros have just a tad over $11 million they can use to sign players in the draft. About $7.2 million is dedicated to the first pick. If they spend less, they can use the surplus on lower picks. If they use more, they will obviously have to make it up by paying the others lesser amounts.

The Pirates have only $6.5 million for their entire draft, less than the Astros had for the first pick. Pittsburgh has just $2.9 million allotted for the eighth pick.

Seven teams may regret playing the Boras game down the road. Each of them passed on Appel, but they’ll probably sleep easier tonight.